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AUBURN — Jack Driscoll “probably could have” played that day in Starkville, Mississippi, then-offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey said. Auburn’s starting right tackle dressed and went through pregame warm-ups, but the team ultimately decided that it would be best to sit him after he suffered a leg injury the week prior.

So, on Oct. 6, 2018, Calvin Ashley made the first start of his Tigers career at right tackle. It ended up being his only start — the former five-star recruit transferred to Florida Atlantic following that season and now plays for Florida A&M.

This story is not about Ashley, though; it is about Ashley represents. He was the first offensive tackle Auburn signed out of high school to start an SEC game since 2016. It hasn’t happened again since. The only other one who started any game was 2015 three-star Bailey Sharp, as a fifth-year senior against Kent State this past season.

That’s what makes Friday’s commitments from 2021 offensive tackles Caleb Johnson and Garner Langlo as significant as Sunday’s addition of a potential quarterback of the future, four-star Houston product Dematrius Davis — it’s a sign that the Tigers and first-year offensive line coach Jack Bicknell Jr. are finding success recruiting position they have struggled to in recent years.

And they may not be done — they aren't the favorite to land five-stars Tommy Brockermeyer or Amarius Mims, but they are at least in contention for both.

Former Ole Miss offensive line coach Jack Bicknell Jr., who took the same job at Auburn in January 2020.(Photo: Ole Miss Athletics)

Auburn hasn’t signed an offensive tackle out of high school since Kameron Stutts in 2018 and hasn’t signed two in the same class since Ashley and Austin Troxell in 2017. In fact, it signed only five offensive tackles from any level over four recruiting cycles from 2016-19, with Driscoll and three-star 2015 signee Brodarious Hamm being the other two.

But it appears as if that is starting to change. The Tigers added two of the top four JUCO tackles, Kilian Zierer and Brenden Coffey, in 2020 and now count three top-70 high school offensive tackles among their eight 2021 commitments.

The four-star Johnson and three-star Langlo are teammates at Trinity Catholic High in Ocala, Florida, who both stand 6-foot-7. The former plays right tackle, and the latter both tackle and guard on the left side. J’Marion Gooch, who committed in April, is a three-star prospect out of Seymour, Tennessee, listed at 6-foot-7 ½ and nearly 360 pounds. Given his size and athleticism, he projects as a prototypical left tackle.

Of course, at the end of the day, it doesn't necessarily matter where Auburn gets its offensive tackles from. Four players combined to make 78 of a possible 80 starts on the right and left sides of the offensive line over the past three seasons. Only one, Prince Tega Wanogho, signed with the Tigers out of high school, and that was as a four-star defensive end who changed positions following a redshirt year. The other three were transfers — Driscoll (UMass), Austin Golson (Ole Miss) and Darius James (Texas).

Each was successful. Golson made 37 starts at four different positions from 2015-17. James started at left tackle in 2016 then flipped to the right side during Auburn’s run to an SEC West title in 2017. Wanogho and Driscoll book-ended lines in 2018 and 2019 that struggled as a group, but they were both talented enough individually to get selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fourth and sixth round of last month’s NFL Draft, respectively.

What the Tigers have been missing in those recent seasons, though, is tackle depth. That’s why they went after Driscoll before the 2018 season; why Alec Jackson, another former defensive line signee, followed in Wanogho’s footsteps and switched to tackle before the 2019 campaign; and why Auburn signed two JUCO prospects and added Akron transfer Brandon Council on the road to 2020. It hasn’t helped that Troxell, a four-star recruit ranked No. 18 at his position in the 2017 class, has missed two of three seasons on campus due to separate ACL injuries.

Depth was never a problem early on during Gus Malzahn’s tenure as head coach. Players who started multiple games at tackle during his first three seasons from 2013-15 include Greg Robinson, Patrick Miller, Avery Young and Shon Coleman, who were all former four-star recruits. Three of those four played in the NFL.

Robert Leff, a three-star recruit ranked 1,060th nationally in the 2012, is a perfect example of why having numbers on the offensive line can be so beneficial — he waited his turn behind those standouts; made the most of his reps as a reserve and sixth man; and became a 16-game starter at right tackle as a senior.

All five of those players signed before 2013. Robinson and Coleman came on board while he was still offensive coordinator (2009-11). Young, Miller and Leff were part of the seven-tackle class signed in 2012, before Gene Chizik’s final season with the Tigers and Malzahn’s only season as the head coach at Arkansas State.

Not counting four transfers from other four-year schools, Auburn signed only eight players listed by recruiting services as offensive tackles over eight recruiting classes from 2013-20, with J.B. Grimes and Herb Hand serving as the position coaches. One of those, 2015 three-star Mike Horton, made all 32 of his career starts at guard. Two others, Hamm and Stutts, have also spent most of their time at guard.

Hamm will be in the mix to earn one of two open starting jobs at tackle in 2020 whenever Auburn is able to get back on the field after moving back to that position last year. So too will Troxell, provided he’s healthy and able to stay that way. But the rest of the competitors for those spots will be a converted defensive lineman (Jackson), two JUCO signees (Zierer and Coffey) and a graduate transfer (Council). The latter is going into his final season of eligibility, while the rest have two years left.

That’s why players like 2020 signee Jeremiah Wright (a three-star guard Auburn believes has the size and athleticism to play tackle) and 2021 commits Johnson, Langlo and Gooch so important — offensive linemen typically take time to develop into capable starters, so recruiting depth years in advance is crucial.

“He’s really done a super job,” Malzahn said of Bicknell last month. “Him and (offensive coordinator Chad Morris) have really hit it off. He’s a great coach, he’s a great recruiter. Our offensive line is in great hands from the future.”

Josh Vitale is the Auburn beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. You can follow him on Twitter at @JoshVitale. To reach him by email, click here.